Hearty Pickle Soup- Unusual Polish Dish

There is nothing better than a bowl of hot soup eaten on a chilly winter evening. I want to try to convince you to try this unusual, fermented pickle soup from Eastern Europe. It's a bit like Marmite, you will either love it or hate it, but generally speaking, if you like pickles, you will like this soup. It's easy to make, doesn't take long and can be made vegetarian by omitting meat.

The soup is tangy and sour, very umami and earthy. It's not the kind of unpleasant-sour like vinegar, it's more mild and pleasantly refreshing.

If you have any pregnant friends or family members who crave pickles, make this soup for them, it always hits the spot.

Fermented pickles, like any other fermented foods are full of good bacteria, great for the digestive system and helpful with things like gut healing, weight loss, immune system and so on. And FYI, eating the pickles will remove some vitamins, but won't destroy the good bacteria.

The following recipe is enough for 2-3 full bowls. This soup is filling enough to serve as a main dish, especially if serving with bread.

-350g drained, sour pickles, chopped + leftover pickle juice

-200g potato, chopped into small cubes or grated

-80g white onion (small onion), chopped

-2 garlic cloves-minced

-300g mixed veggies, chopped or grated( carrot, celery, courgette, turnips etc)

-150-200g cooked meat, shredded or cut into small pieces (chicken, sausage or ham)

-1 litre chicken stock (homemade or dissolved stock pot)

-fresh dill - chopped handful (if you can't find dill, you can skip it)

-3 tablespoons sour cream (optional)

-freshly cracked pepper

-DON'T ADD SALT TO THE SOUP, PICKLES ARE PLENTY SALTY + THERE IS SALT IN THE CHICKEN STOCK

The amazing thing about cooking soups is that, unlike baking, nothing has to be exact. Same goes for this recipe, but it's even easier. Sour Pickle is THE main ingredient, the shining star and the most overwhelming flavour in this soup. Everything else serves as a filler and therefore is easily replaced.

If you don't have an onion, you can replace it with celery; if you don't have cooked chicken breast you can add cooked sausage instead and so on... All you need are the basics: proteins, carbs and veggies for fibre content.

There are a lot of different pickle varieties in the world, some I haven't even heard of until now (looking at you Kool-Aid pickles). Different countries have different names and designations, so I can't tell you what to buy and where, but I can describe what to look for.

For this recipe you need a very specific type of pickle. You need to look for something called "sour pickle" or "fermented pickle". The ingredient list can't have vinegar listed, it needs to be just brine.

We call them "zombie pickles" in my house, because they literally look like they are one day away from falling apart. I tried to capture the "zombieness" in the pictures, so you get an idea what to look for. Generally speaking, the best pickles for this soup are the ones you wouldn't want to eat straight out of the jar. Bonus point if the brine they are floating in is murky and opaque, instead of clear liquid.

Unfortunately, for this recipe, you can't substitute. You have to get fermented pickles.

The best places to get these pickles would be farmers markets, heath food stores and Eastern European supermarkets as well as Jewish/kosher stores. You could also purchase online.

On a medium heat, fry onion and celery in olive oil. Once the veggies turn semi-translucent and soften up, add minced garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

Add the chicken stock (1 whole litre) and cubed potatoes and veggies. Anything raw needs to go into the pan at this stage. Turn the heat up and bring the liquid to a boil, then turn it down to medium and cook for about 15 min until all raw veggies are soft.

The soup at this stage isn't all that good looking, but trust the process and keep going.

Finally, once all the raw ingredients are cooked, you can add the rest. So, put the cooked meat and pickles into the pan and add a handful of chopped dill.

Pour in at least one cup (240ml) of dill juice into the pan. If you still need more liquid, either top the pan off with a cup of water, or add more pickle juice.

Return the pan to the stove and warm up for a few minutes on a medium heat. You don't want to heat it up too long at this point, everything is already cooked through and too much heat would be detrimental to the fermented pickle and all the nutrients within.

The pickle soup is done at this point and can be served as is, but you can add sour cream to finish it off.

The tradition of adding dairy (heavy cream, sour cream) to soups in Eastern Europe is not 100% explained, but there are a few possible reasons:

1. adding more calories to the meals, especially needed during heavy, cold winters
2. eating fat helps with vitamin absorption
3. better, creamier texture
4. visual aspect- "soup whitening" makes it look more appealing

If you choose to add dairy, you have to remove about a cup of clear liquid from the soup and pour it into separate container. Then, mix the liquid with sour cream, and pour it all into the soup and mix well.

Sour cream is finicky and can't be exposed to high temperatures, so only add it at the end of cooking and don't bring the soup to the boil after this step. You can reheat the soup, just make sure to keep an eye on the temperature.

Plate the soup and add a sprinkle of dill on top. Serve with crusty sourdough bread.

Enjoy.